Nikki for luck
by Sapphire1112
Summary: One shot. Set in Commodity. Nikki visits Jack before his fight. I do not own the characters or the episode 'Commodity'.


One for arguing back,

Two to let it lie,

Three for a wronged scientist

Having to apolygise,

Four for my anger,

Five to keep calm.

Six for a fight

I must not lose,

Seven for an outcome

I get to choose,

Eight for the women who brings me cheer,

Nine for her words

Which I need to hear,

Ten for a Doctor

Who's very pretty,

There is no doubt in my mind

My lucky charm is Nikki.

 _"Where is he?"_

 _"Gone to satisfy his masochistic tendency"_

 _"We couldn't do that for him?"_

 _"I think Chamberlain could. He was looking for him too."_

Leighton, Leighton, Leighton. What an _arsehole_! Suggesting _we're_ not stepping up - how _dare_ he! And Chamberlain - he's not much better! Insinuating all that stuff about Nikki! _Arsehole_! She doesn't play with information and she doesn't lie. And she is _highly_ _skilled_ at her job! She's the best pathologist I've ever met.

And now Chamberlain expected him to apolygise to Leighton. _Him_! How could they send that blithering idiot to fill the position that Leo left? Jack clenched and unclenched his fists as he began preparing for his fight. He gave an exasperated sigh. He would much rather have Nikki bossing him around - even if she didn't want the job. Screw Chamberlain. Screw Leighton. Screw the lot of them! Except Nikki. And Clarissa. They made everything better. Clarissa, Nikki and him. The Lyell Centre united. They didn't need Chamberlain. They didn't need anyone else.

Jack flexed his muscles and pulled his t-shirt over his head. He _needed_ to win this cage fight. He needed to re-direct all the anger and frustration from work. That was the downside to his hobby. Every time he won it made him feel great, but if he lost it put him in an even worse mood - especially if he ended up with a black eye or bust lip. Jack sighed again. If only he had his lucky charm here - she would _guarantee_ a win. He'd win _for_ her. But it was never going to happen. Nikki always refused to come. He'd stopped asking her now.

His car was in the car park. He was here then. Of course he was. Nikki knocked on the door and was greeted with a topless Jack.

 _Wow_!

Even so, he looked more surprised than she did - even enquiring why she was there.

 _Why do you think, Jack? Obviously I came to check you're ok!_

He stepped back to let her into the make-shift changing room. It was really a toilet. _Lovely_! Nikki hung her bag on the hand rail and turned around. "Leighton complained about you to Chamberlain."

Jack smirked slightly - Nikki clearly didn't like either of the men either. The disdain was evident on her face and he knew that she had come to check he was ok and to warn him that he might be in trouble. He looked up at her as he started to wrap his left hand. "I know, I got a phone message. I'm meant to apolygise."

"Ouch." She replied, sympathetically. She was on his side as usual.

Jack nodded in agreement. "I know."

Nikki had _that_ _look_ about her. The look she always had when she didn't understand a case - the look that meant she needed to talk it through with him in order to clear her mind. "The fact that we have no physical evidence that links Dreyfus to Eva Liron's death is..."

Jack nodded. "Unusual, I know. Can you help me?"

Nikki automatically moved towards him. Kneeling in front of him, she continued. "We have plenty of embarrassing motive, but no DNA. Nothing."

He nodded again. "Can you wrap this?"

Nikki took his right hand and started to wrap it. "He dumps her body at his place of work but manages to leave no trace? The Freedman/Rashid murders - they were executed. Is that Issac Dreyfus? I mean he's rich and he has no shame but he doesn't need to kill anyone."

Jack was marvelling at the way she 'expertly' wrapped his hand, as though she had done it many times before - despite the fact she hadn't, whilst continuing to talk. Wow, this woman _knew_ how to multi-task! "Don't you always make a big thing about simply presenting what we find and not interpreting it? He teased her lightly.

"Yes..." Of course, Nikki had just agreed with him without really considering what he had actually said, but she continued anyway. "...and then, based on the tradjectories..."

"He's the wrong height for the bullet's angle of trajectory." Jack answered, mildly amused that Nikki had basically agreed with him that she was contradicting herself and then had just carried on regardless.

"Yes, _exactly_!"

Jack couldn't help but admire her enthusiasm. "He could have done it but it's unnatural. Mind you, it's _all_ unnatural."

Nikki wasn't finished yet. "The police have pinned their careers to him being guilty, but he's not." Jack grinned to himself. He loved it when Nikki started dissing the police.

There was a rap on the door and a man shouted "You're up"

"You didn't come here to see me fight?" Jack asked, already knowing the answer. He didn't care - she'd come to see him before his fight and that was good enough for him.

"No." Nikki caught his eye as she finished wrapping his hand and gave him a small, apolygetic smile. "Sorry." She stood up. "Why can't I just say that he's innocent?"

"Our job is to make other people say that."

Nikki carried on and Jack wasn't sure if she had actually heard him. "I used to have...if I thought something, I had...i don't know, clarity and..."

Jack found her so cute when she was lost for words... Another rap on the door broke his thoughts. "Yeah, got it, on my way!" he answered loudly.

Nikki sighed, unable to find the right word. "I don't know."

Jack looked up at her fondly. "Confidence?" He offered, helpfully. It was just a suggestion. Even though he knew her well enough to usually be able to work out what she meant - he couldn't actually read her mind and on this occasion he really had _no_ _idea_ what she meant.

"Is it confidence?..." Apparently Nikki couldn't read her own mind this time either! "I don't know. I'm stuck. Sitting on a fence. First Leo and now Chamberlain. I guess I just want certainty."

"I have to..." Jack began, but it was sometimes difficult to get a word in when Nikki was in full flow - and he did so love listening to her, which probably didn't help.

"We've been looking for evidence to prove that he's guilty. Maybe we should be looking for evidence to prove he's innocent. I'm missing something and I just don't know where to look for it."

Jack tried again. "Nikki, I have to go."

She looked back at him. "Yeah, yeah, go have fun."

He gave her one last look before heading out the door. She wouldn't be there when he got back but that was ok. It wouldn't have been fair to ask her to wait for him and he would see her tomorrow.

 ***After his fight, Jack ran back to his changing room and through the door. Upon seeing that Nikki has** **waited for him, he gives a triumphant grunt.***

Nikki raised her eyebrows at him. "Win?" She wasn't particularly pleased to see that he had blood dripping down his face and she couldn't for the life of her understand why he enjoyed getting beaten up for a hobby. But then if she hated his cage-fighting hobby _so_ _much_ , was it bad that she found the sight of him bursting in all revved up from winning _really_ attractive? Right now, she couldn't deny that she found him captivating, especially when he leaned over right next to her.

"You'll have to come all the time. You're my lucky charm!" She really is, Jack thought. He was so delighted to find that she was still here.

"Great! Put me on a keyring!" Well that was a _very_ 'Nikki' answer.

"It's a hate crime." Jack exclaimed enthusiastically, pacing to the other side of the room.

Nikki turned around and looked at him. "What?" Turning around was a mistake. Not only was he revved up from the fight but he was _obviously_ stirred up inside - having worked the case out and his eyes flashed excitedly as he spoke. _So_ _attractive_! She turned back to the sink and started to wet some tissue. She _had_ to do something about his face. She couldn't keep watching the blood dripping down it.

Jack's words tumbled out in an excited flurry. "Between the rounds..."

 _There's more than one round?_

"...things go through your mind, right? I'm standing there in Nathan Freedman's bedroom and I think to myself the was a Dreyfus fan , which is odd for where he lives. In North London you have three teams - Spurs, the Arse, Manchester United. Then it hits me..."

 _Well something hit you, Jack!_

"...Dreyfus is a Jewish footballer. The lad was Jewish. Of course!" He was so excited that he hadn't even noticed Nikki walking up to him with a wet tissue and it came as quite a shock, when she pressed the cold, wet tissue against the stinging cut on his face. "Ow! Please don't do that!" he protested, spinning on his heel in surprise.

"Sorry." Nikki apolygised, slightly amused that he had been so _polite_ when he would normally have sworn - and probably would have done if it had been anyone else.

Jack had already got over the shock and was talking excitedly again. "Just before the beginning of round two, I'm thinking about all this, when bang! It hit me..."

 _Are you sure that wasn't someone's fist, Jack? He must have got that cut in round two._

"Access."

"To do what?" Nikki was watching his excited eyes in _awe_.

"Kill" Jack explained.

"But _nobody_ died in the Dreyfus family." Nikki exclaimed. Jack just stared at her. He looked slightly deflated now.

But oh, he was so handsome...


End file.
